Perspective
Perspective matters.
In the year 1998 my friend Stevie changed my life. He was the kind of guy that had an influence on all those around him. He was a free spirit. He was confident, and he knew what he believed.
He ran a workshop called the Breakthrough Experience. It changed my world. And telling you about one of the exercises we did might change yours.
Stevie invited us to look around the room and find everything that contained the color blue. He asked us to only look for blue. Blue was all that mattered. No other colors existed except blue.
We did this exercise for five minutes. After the time was up, Stevie asked us to name all of the blue items. We did that with relative ease. There were lots of things that contained blue.
Then, Stevie asked us to do the hard part. He said to (without looking around the room) name everything that contained yellow. We had to sit there with our eyes closed and try and remember yellow things.
After a minute or two we could only come up with one or two things that contained yellow.
Then Stevie pointed out that there were a lot of things that had yellow. We didn’t remember them, because we were focused on the blue.
On that day my life was changed.
What Stevie was getting at was that what you look for you will find. His point was if you look for hope, you will find it. If you look for peace, you will find it. If you want to have gratitude, you will find things to be grateful for. If you look for reasons why the world is good, you will find them. And, if you look for anger, desperation, fear, and misery you will find that too.
The world is a mix of pain and peace. There is misery on our planet, and there is peace on our planet. There is anger and hate, and there is love. There are people suffering, and there are people enjoying a good life.
How do we find the life that we want? Is it possible to focus on the positive, and then only get that?
I don’t believe that it is possible to avoid pain and suffering. To think that I could would be to deny the reality of the experiences that life offers. But, I do believe that we have some kind of control over how we react to it. It’s not about trying to dictate an outcome. It’s about having a healthier perspective towards those things that are out of our control.
Here is an example of how being aware of choosing my perspective works for me.
I attempt to say thank you to everything that happens in my life. No matter what happens, I say thank you. This may or may not sound naive to you, but it works for me. When I am saying thank you to everything, I will draw more things into my life to be thankful for. It helps me to let go of resentments.
I don’t have the full picture of why certain events are happening around me. I only have my narrow view of it. I bring my history and belief system into every interaction. My actions will be dictated by my belief system, and my perspective is formed by my belief system. When I’m sure I’m right, I must be careful. When I declare that I am right about something, I need to consider that I may not have all of the facts. I may be wrong. Going back to my friend Stevie’s analogy, I may be looking for things to validate my beliefs, and not considering other possibilities.
When I allow myself to consider other people’s views and opinions, I am a better person for it. My world becomes richer, and I am a healthier person. I stay out of resentments and righteous indignation. It makes me a more peaceful person, and my relationships with others are better.
Perspective matters.
In the year 1998 my friend Stevie changed my life. He was the kind of guy that had an influence on all those around him. He was a free spirit. He was confident, and he knew what he believed.
He ran a workshop called the Breakthrough Experience. It changed my world. And telling you about one of the exercises we did might change yours.
Stevie invited us to look around the room and find everything that contained the color blue. He asked us to only look for blue. Blue was all that mattered. No other colors existed except blue.
We did this exercise for five minutes. After the time was up, Stevie asked us to name all of the blue items. We did that with relative ease. There were lots of things that contained blue.
Then, Stevie asked us to do the hard part. He said to (without looking around the room) name everything that contained yellow. We had to sit there with our eyes closed and try and remember yellow things.
After a minute or two we could only come up with one or two things that contained yellow.
Then Stevie pointed out that there were a lot of things that had yellow. We didn’t remember them, because we were focused on the blue.
On that day my life was changed.
What Stevie was getting at was that what you look for you will find. His point was if you look for hope, you will find it. If you look for peace, you will find it. If you want to have gratitude, you will find things to be grateful for. If you look for reasons why the world is good, you will find them. And, if you look for anger, desperation, fear, and misery you will find that too.
The world is a mix of pain and peace. There is misery on our planet, and there is peace on our planet. There is anger and hate, and there is love. There are people suffering, and there are people enjoying a good life.
How do we find the life that we want? Is it possible to focus on the positive, and then only get that?
I don’t believe that it is possible to avoid pain and suffering. To think that I could would be to deny the reality of the experiences that life offers. But, I do believe that we have some kind of control over how we react to it. It’s not about trying to dictate an outcome. It’s about having a healthier perspective towards those things that are out of our control.
Here is an example of how being aware of choosing my perspective works for me.
I attempt to say thank you to everything that happens in my life. No matter what happens, I say thank you. This may or may not sound naive to you, but it works for me. When I am saying thank you to everything, I will draw more things into my life to be thankful for. It helps me to let go of resentments.
I don’t have the full picture of why certain events are happening around me. I only have my narrow view of it. I bring my history and belief system into every interaction. My actions will be dictated by my belief system, and my perspective is formed by my belief system. When I’m sure I’m right, I must be careful. When I declare that I am right about something, I need to consider that I may not have all of the facts. I may be wrong. Going back to my friend Stevie’s analogy, I may be looking for things to validate my beliefs, and not considering other possibilities.
When I allow myself to consider other people’s views and opinions, I am a better person for it. My world becomes richer, and I am a healthier person. I stay out of resentments and righteous indignation. It makes me a more peaceful person, and my relationships with others are better.
Perspective matters.
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